Closing Another Historic Session

June 27th, 2008 | Posted by admin

Dear Friends,

 

Closing Another Historic Session

The reforms that we have made over the past six months have truly been historic and will help change the face of our state for generations to come. Our first Special Session addressed ethics reform, and transformed our state from one that sits at the bottom to top in the nation in disclosure. Our second Special Session transformed our state’s business tax structure, making Louisiana an attractive place for businesses to grow and expand, bringing more jobs and putting more dollars in workers’ pockets.

 

Just as our two special sessions earlier this year, the regular session proved to be an historic one. We have instituted important reforms in our education, health care, and workforce systems, and have continued to restructure our tax system so that more of your hard earned dollars stay in your pockets.

 

Our accomplishments this session are many and are great first steps to the New Louisiana that we all are working toward. A New Louisiana that is the best place in the world to raise a family, get a quality education and pursue a great career. Word is spreading that Louisiana is changing, but we still have a lot more work to do. 

Biggest Income Tax Reduction in State History

Earlier this week I was joined by Senator Buddy Shaw in Shreveport to mark the signing of the largest income tax reduction in our state’s history by removing the burdensome Stelly Tax.

 

As WDSU-TV reported, this is the sixth tax cut I have signed since taking office in January, and I have pledged to continue to cut taxes. The elimination of the Stelly tax gives more than $300 million back next year to the hard working families across our state, and more than $1 billion over the next five years. I am a strong believer that people can spend their money better than government and I will continue to be a strong advocate for putting more of the taxpayers’ money back in their pockets and giving families across the state more economic opportunities.

 

Reforming Workforce Development

As we continue to reform many of our state’s outdated policies and procedures, the revamping of our state’s workforce development system is one that will help reverse a trend and help ensure we have the trained workers necessary to fill the jobs currently available and those that will be created when companies build and expand. In recent years, many employers have chosen sites in Alabama, Texas, and other neighboring states because they did not feel Louisiana had the workforce in place to support their companies. With our reforms, that will change.

 

The workforce development reforms that the Legislature passed will, as reported in the Houma Courier, “streamline the state Labor Department and help it to better respond to regional workforce issues.” These reforms update the state’s past policies that were created for the 20th century economy to one that reflects the 21st century economy that we currently face. We will do a much better job of matching training classes to potential jobs, and are offering our graduates a “Day One Guarantee” that they will be trained on the first day of their new jobs, or our community and technical colleges will retrain them for free.

 

As reported by the Associated Press, the revamping of our workforce development system “will help better connect employers with a pool of skilled workers to fill thousands of job vacancies in Louisiana.” By increasing dual enrollment programs throughout the state, we are providing students in high school with earlier opportunities to begin training for future employment. These reforms will help grow our state’s economy, putting more money in the pockets of our families and businesses alike.

 

Education Reform

Our greatest investment is our children. Our educational reforms will help give teachers the tools they need to help ensure that all our children receive a quality education.

We have passed a Teacher’s Bill of Rights, giving teachers the knowledge that we stand behind them in the classroom and will not allow bad behavior to prevent our students from receiving a quality education. The Teacher’s Bill of Rights is, as the Opelousas Daily World stated, “an important first step in giving back to teachers the minimum things needed for them to teach properly.” The Daily World also wrote that it will “give teachers a stronger hand when they must deal with undisciplined and disruptive students who probably shouldn’t be in the classroom in the first place - and with parents who think their unruly kids should be allowed to do as they please wherever they please.”

Other education reforms include:

  • Giving teachers a more than $1,000 a year pay raise in order to keep their salaries in line with the Southern Regional average,
  • Reducing duplicate, burdensome paperwork for teachers, allowing them instead to use that time teaching our children,
  • Investing in a Literacy and Numeracy Initiative to train our school leaders, and reading and math specialists to better prepare students struggling with their reading and math skills.

The effects of these changes will be felt in classrooms throughout the state, and will allow positive trends, such as our increasing LEAP scores for our 4th and 8th graders, to continue to improve in the future.

Protecting Our Children

As the father of three young children, I understand how vitally important it is that we keep them safe from violent criminals and sexual predators. During this legislative session, we strengthened our laws to protect our children from those who seek to do them harm, and protect them from these vile and disgusting acts.

We have doubled and tripled the sentences for those who harm our children – especially for those sex offenders that prey on our kids through the Internet, and have broadened the penalties for computer-aided solicitation of minors to include text messages. And, once someone is convicted of a sex crime, we now require them to register as a sex offender for the duration of their life – not just 15 years – but their entire life. Victims have to live their entire lives with the memory of what happened to them; perpetrators should not face a lesser sentence.

Health Care Reform

We have also taken great steps to help modernize our health care system, improve patient outcomes, and lower costs. I will soon sign into law legislation that creates a website which will allow patients to compare and contrast the costs and performance of health care facilities throughout the state. The Associated Press reported that the bill will allow patients to, “search data on complications, mortality rates, bed sore rates and post-operation infections to know which hospital or clinic they want to visit.”

 

We have also strengthened our state’s mental health system, a system that was flawed, but was crippled greater by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. One example of legislation that was passed was Nicola’s law, named after slain New Orleans Police Officer Nicola Cotton, which allows a judge to order mandatory outpatient treatment for mentally ill patients who may be a danger to society when not provided with supervision. We have also passed legislation that will create mental health crisis centers, which, as WWL TV reported “would relieve hospital emergency rooms of caring for mental health patients and give police officers a place to bring people with mental health needs.”

 

Through aggressive outreach efforts, we have helped add 11,000 uninsured children to the Louisiana Children’s Health Insurance Program, surpassing enrollment goals for the year and showing a commitment to ensure that all of Louisiana’s children have access to health care. With the implementation of this expansion and online application, LaCHIP now covers more that 646,000 children throughout the state that might not otherwise have access to care.

 

Finally, during this session Louisiana was chosen by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as one of the first four states to take part in a national Medicare demonstration project that will help pay physicians to move to using certified electronic health records to improve the quality of patient care. Electronic medical records have the potential to revolutionize our health care system, decreasing mistakes that cost the lives of thousands of Americans every year and making it more efficient, cost-effective, and able to provide quality care to more people.

 

Youth Art at the Mansion

As reported by KATC TV, this week my wife Supriya announced that for the first time artwork by Louisiana youth will be displayed prominently on a regular rotating basis at the Governor’s Mansion, joining dozens of other pieces on loan from galleries, museums, art collectors featuring Louisiana artists.  Different young artists will be featured every month.

 

This month’s artists are winners of the Louisiana Art Education Association’s annual contest, with winners from the Governor’s Office of Environmental Education and Alcoa Art and Art Literature competition (pictured) being featured in July.

I can think of no better way to showcase the talent of the youth of our state than to feature their work in the Governor’s Mansion.

The Baton Rouge Advocate also did a feature article this week on Supriya that shares with everyone else what I already know – she is an incredible wife, a loving mother and an amazing First Lady for our state.

Sincerely,

 Bobby Jindal

Governor Bobby Jindal

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